October 24, 2012

It was pitch dark on the pavement so there was no question of making out as to what was being pulled from the smart blue shirt's pocket.

"Keep it", and a yellow flower was placed on her palm.

A flower that had earlier that day survived from being crushed under the foot of some devotee.

"So from where is this coming?", was her next question.

It was not the general category of flowers which she had received in the past.

"It's from the temple", he replied.

"Temple??", she was startled to hear that.

"Yes, the one which is near to my office, remember?", he said.

"Yea...yea...okay", she got the source of the flower.

"But you went to the temple? When ? Why and with whom?", a lot of inquiries were done. Usual nature of women.

"I don't need a company to go to a temple", he found the question way too weird to answer.

"But yaar, I don't know whose temple I visited?", he said.

"You don't know? Matlab (what do you mean?)", she was confused now.

"I mean, I went to the temple, offered the prayers, got the Pundit's blessings but I actually don't know which God or Goddess I worshipped !!", his reply was enough for her to keep laughing for next few minutes.

October 16, 2012

She sat there, calmly smoking the cigarette neatly perched inbetween her fingers. The remaining fingers supported the whiskey glass in her hand. She inhaled the smoked and felt the mild kick her brain got. It felt good, it felt relaxing, it felt better. She needed her mind to stop working for sometime, and though marijuana was the perfect drug for her, she preferred the cigarette. She drank occasionaly, but wasnt this a perfect occasion? She smirked at herself and gulped down the undiluted neat whiskey. She took a deep breathe, the effect of cigarette and whiskey was wearing off, maybe she really needed to switch to marijuana, she thought lazily. She walked to her private bar and poured herself another large peg. Again draining her glass completely, she thought she needed another cigarette, but before she could light the next one, the glass stumbled out of her fingers and she slumped down the marble floor. She was no more in control of herself. She looked around her lavish expansive room and tears ran through her cheeks, smudging her perfectly kohled eyes.

"I dont think I'm ever going to marry Anu. I dont want to marry. Thats it. What do I lack in life? Nothing! I have everything...parents, friends, you, money...everything! Why should I ruin it all with a guy and marriage? No way, I am not marrying!"

"Oh comon, dont you want a good loving husband? A caring guy? A few kids to to call you mumma and run about your house....dont you want all that?? Oh comon! I too have everything that you have, but I want to marry so eagerly! I want to have kids....lots of them!" and they both giggled together just like they had always done since childhood.

"But you want to do that because you have a guy in your life, I dont! And honestly, I'm happy without one. They are just useless. Look at me, dont I look happy and content? Why do you want to spoil my happiness Anu?"

"Idiot, I want you to enjoy and experience happiness which is beyong the happiness you currenly feel. I want you to be a happy and a complete woman, not just a happy and independent girl!" and like always, Priya had to agree with her childhood best friend.

"I know my mother has bribed you get me married, she just cant stand her daughter so happy!" She sulked and Anu chastly kissed her cheeks and hugged her tightly.

"You know we both want you to be happy!"

The earth was spinning around her and she held the leg of the bar stool tightly. Someone was hammering inside her head, and it was getting intolerable. Hot tears ran through her cheeks and she wiped them off smudging the kohl on her blushed cheeks. She wished to find a dagger somewhere to end the pain she felt in her heart, but all she found was emptiness all around. The loneliness was killing her and she was willing to give away anything to end it. She needed someone to talk to...someone to hug...someone to wipe her tears and comfort her, but all she was left with was a big vacuum in her life. She wanted to get sucked into the black hole and get lost in the blackness forever. It was getting unbearable. She longed for companionship, for company. She needed someone around...someone to make her feel alive. She wanted someone to make her feel special, someone to make her feel happy. The emptiness was biting her, and she wanted to run away and save her life.

"I cant tell you how happy I am Priya!"

"I know bitch, you are getting married to the guy you love so madly!"

"Yes, and see how happy I am? Now comon, either find a guy for yourself or start meeting these short-listed guys...plz Priya! I want us to get married around the same time!"

"Are you out of your mind girl? You will be getting married by the end of this year, which leaves me with hardly 8 months! And you want me to find a guy and marry him in these 8 months?! You must be kidding me!"

"No. I am very much serious! So you better hurry up!"

"But...but...heyy...wait...listen to me...Anu...wait..."

She crawled up back to the bar table. The pain was unbearable. She needed something to ease her out of the pain, to make her forget all her past, infact even the present. It was the present that was killing her.... the past had been beautiful. Fresh tears blinded her vision, and her aching throat simply added to her aching heart. She caught hold of the Jack Daniel she had been pouring from and drank directly from the bottle....and slumped back to the floor again, only this time sobbing uncontrollably.

"Hey baby...I love you so much...come here in my arms..."

"I love you too darling..."

Her eyes were blood-shot, but tears kept flowing. Everything in front of her eyes started turning hazy. Her head was spinning and she could no longer make sense of the world around her. She though of him and a small smile played on her lips. She still was madly in love with that bastard. His eyes... His smile... His arms... His voice... was all she ever needed in her life. It was all perfect untill yesterday. Only if she hadnt anwered that phone call.

"Hey sexy...am in town for a couple of days. Heritage Hotel, room no - 6. Be here at sharp 7...I'll be waiting for my naughty lover! Bye. And I missed you darling!"

"Who is she?"

"None of your business. Get away."

"It is my damn business!! We are getting married next week!! Who is she?"

"Mind your own business. I have to go. Get away."

"Tell me the truth Raj...how long has it been going on..."

"You wanna know the truth...fine! Listen, Its been 6 months since I've been sleeping with her! Anything else?"

-----

"Hey Anu, Priya here. I called you several times but you never replied...so...ummm... mom was asking when should we call the beautician.... and..umm... Mohan said, maroon really suits me, so I was thinking, we'll get more of maroon tops...*giggle*... ok...and yea..u were right bitch, I did fall for him, and I cant believe I am getting married! And all thanks to you and Raj...man, you both are a couple made in heaven! Without you both I would have never agreed to marry! Thanku guys! And can you believe, its just a week for our marriage! You were right, we really are getting married on the same day! Isnt that super exciting! Ok, call me when you get this message. Need to discuss a lot with you."

-----

"Mom, I hope she gets allrite. I cant contact Raj too, I hope everything's ok with him......Doctor how is she? Is everything ok? What happened to her?"

"She's out of danger now. She had gone into shock, which led to depression. She's fine now."

------

"Anu aunty...mummy says when I grow up, a handsome prince will come for me on a white horse, is it true?"

"Yes darling, its true. You are a princess, and a handsome strong prince will come to get you on horseback!"

"Mummy says even you are a princess...then why didnt a prince come to get you?"

October 5, 2012

During the Infosys Mysore training days, even while “living on the edge”, I did
two things very often. Checking out boys and checking out girls. The
latter was for our desperate enthusiastic guy-friends.

And me being this magnanimous creature *smug look*, took the latter part
a bit too seriously. Finding efficient eye-exercise regimens for my
male friends seemed to be my top-priority back then. Apart from trying
not to flunk, that is. So the things being as
they were, we got posted to Hyderabad and the batch was scattered all
over the existing Infosys DC’s. By random providence or fate, I got the
city closest to my hometown and I was pretty happy (actually 3 years down the line; I’m still figuring out if it
is a good thing or a bad thing). Even though Hyderabad DC’s
‘homely’ look paled in comparison to Mysore DC’s opulence, I tried to
console myself by going back to square one – checking out population of
male variety that is

I don't know if you have had the same experience, but the snag I always
come up against when I'm marshalling such an useful time pass is this
dashed difficult problem - a certain kind of girl in the group (there is
one in every group I suppose), who would consider
this act as utter blasphemy. They will kick you under the tables when
you are knee-deep in the said process, they will try to make useless
small talk to distract you from following the
object* of the regimen, or worse they will sometimes cover your
eye-angle such that the object is not in focus. These women are usually
of the married variety or the more evil-y committed array who don’t quite understand the benefits of this exercise
regimen.

B is one such lady.

Now B has been married as soon as we landed ourselves at Mysore and is of the
not-false opinion that I haven’t outgrown my college persona yet.
So, when B stares open-mouthed not once pausing to breath, for a full
minute, I HAD to follow her eyes. And I saw the object who had readily
converted the dastardly B. Tall, lanky guy in the adjacent
cubicle, explaining something over IP phone. Great! Irrationally handsome plus we already know
where the guy sits. Awesome!

But just to get the an-eye-for-an-eye thing straight, I snapped
my fingers in front of her eyes to get her back from la-la land.
“Oye..chupa rusthum! What just happened there?”

And so it followed.
Being the liberated, novae convert, B took to exercise regimen as a duck to water. She was a natural. We were pretty discrete and efficient at the same time.

In the days that followed, we timed our lunches appropriately ;-), made sure we had our snacks in the pantry (in high-chairs, mind you)
from where we could have a good view of the cubicle and even timed our
juice-time after thorough homework. If you
do these sorts of things so meticulously, the chances of not being
spotted by the object are pretty slim. Hence - his blushing, when we
were in vicinity, was hard to miss. That we don’t want. We wanted
operation to be as discrete as possible. Having failed
miserably, we decided to move on.

To another regimen...

One fine day after gorging ourselves on abomination that is the FC food,
we were cooling our heels outside the FC, lazily eyeing the folks going
in and going out. It was then we saw another tall, lanky guy who was
walking into the FC. He was talking on his
phone. We spotted him some days later, while sitting in the same spot,
him talking on the phone.

And the third time we saw him, owing to our utter boredom or screwed up neurons, we decided to follow him.
To his building. And follow we did, but not with discretion of CIA agents. But, with the bumbling enthusiasm of Amazon orangutans. Doing the
trying-not-to-giggle-but-bursting-out-laughing in the most
miserable way. Object does a head-turn, eyes the culprits and smiles.
Operation Failed at first lap itself! Abort mission.

Needless to say, we moved on....

This was two years ago. B and A (another accomplice) are no longer with Infosys.
B
is about to complete her Masters and now pings me to tell about the
cute Iranian guy in her class. And another
accomplice A is now happily married and in another organization, she
says she hadn't stalked anyone at all since she moved away. Sad, I know!

Yesterday, when I was on my way out to catch the bus home, I saw TallLankyGuy1 playing
ping-pong with TallLankyGuy2. Life has suddenly come full-circle.

I slinked away as discreetly as possible.

And, tried not to think of the conversation they’d have, had they seen me.

Seen that girl going there, she used to stalk me...

What no kidding, she used to stalk me too.

Girls these days...

DC-Development Center
*kindly excuse the blatant male-objectification. It is fun though :D